Pastoral nomadism arose in the vast steppes of Eurasia early in the first millennium BCE. These were Indo-Iranian tribes, who migrated as dictated by their animals—sheep, goats, horses, and camels—leaving sheltered winter homes in the early spring and following greening pastures to the north (or into higher elevations) until late summer when the threatening winter storms dictated they returned to their winter abode. During the summer when climate permitted, they constructed great burials mounds in consecrated cemeteries where they buried their deceased. Returning during subsequent summers, they often reused the kurgan, making new burials in lateral pits, podbois, or catacombs. American-Russian excavations of more than 50 nomadic kurgans and over 150 burials located at Pokrovka in the southern Ural steppes revealed many artifacts that were meant for use in the afterworld. A methodology that included the typological study of these artifacts revealed that, while men were generally warriors, women held diverse and prominent roles in this Early Iron Age society. The statuses of the women include priestesses, warrior women, and warrior priestesses. This presentation includes evidence from multiple sites: from the southern Ural steppes, western China, southern Kazakstan, and the Gorny Altai in present-day Russia.

Davis-Kimball. Jeannine. Warrior Women: An Archaeologist’s Search for History’s Hidden Heroines. New York, 2002. A new perspective on the histories of dominant women in Eurasian societies written for the general public.

Davis-Kimball, Jeannine, Vladimir A. Bashilov, and Leonid T. Yablonsky, eds. Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age. Berkeley, 1995. Only complete coverage in English on the archaeology of Eurasian nomads from southern Europe to Mongolia.

Rolle, Renata. The World of the Scythians. Translated by F.G. Walls, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989. English translation of Die Welt der Skythen, first published in 1980. Best popular work in English on the Scythians.

Sarianidi Victor. The Golden Hoard of Bactria: From the Tillya-tepe Excavations in Northern Afghanistan. New York, 1985. Picture book and catalogue of excavations.